The Hathras incident seems to be getting murkier by the day with families of the victim and the accused trading charges against each other, escalating the caste tension in the region while the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has further stepped up its investigation.
Sources said that the SIT has asked whosoever present on the spot at the funeral of the victim has been called for questioning. “SIT has summoned a total of 40 people from the village for questioning,” a source said.
The pyre-burning place has already been inspected by the SIT who recorded the statement of the victim's brother. They also inspected the victim's house and roof.
After a report of caste tension in the region, the UP government has rushed two officers of an ADG and a DIG level on Wednesday night to control the situation. The two senior IPS officers-- Rajiv Krishna and Salabh Mathur would be camping in Aligarh and Hathras for next one week to diffuse the tension prevailing in the area. The two officials will report to the DGP after meeting the people and panchayats. The security of the victim family has been enhanced.
Meanwhile allegations and counter allegations by the victim's family and accused had further escalated the caste tension in the region. While the victim belongs to the Dalit community, the accused are from upper caste.
The controversy took another twist on Thursday after the accused have written a letter to the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Hathras from the Aligarh jail, where they are lodged about their innocence.
The letter written by the prime accused Sandeep in which all the four accused have thumb impression claims that they are in jail in connection with a FIR registered against them under section 307,354 and 3(2)5 of the SC Act on September 20 last. The other three accused are Luvkush, Ravi and Ramu, all relatives of Sandeep.
They said that they are innocent and all have been implicated by the girl's family. Sandeep in the letter claims that he is friends with the girl and used to meet her frequently and talk over the phone regularly. He said on the fateful day, he had called the girl in the field but there she came along with her mother and brother. Sandeep said immediately he went away and joined his father in feeding the cows. Later, he learnt that the girl's brother thrashed her badly which led to her hospitalization and later her death.
According to police investigation, the phone used by the victim's family had chat record with Sandeep for at least 104 times in 143 days between October 2019 to March. But the girl's brother refuted the police claim saying that there was just one mobile phone in the house and it was with his father. He claimed that the phone was also lost so they arranged a new SIM. He also said that it was a conspiracy by police to protect the accused. The girl family even went to the High Court to seek its intervention against the manner in which they were detained in the name of security cover. Upset with the recent attack on the family both by the police and upper caste members, they even appealed to give them Rs poison'.
It may be mentioned that the State government has already alleged that against the backdrop of the Hathras incident, some anti-national forces were trying to create caste clashes and even detected trials of around Rs 100 crores, including Rs 50 crore, from Mauritius and other countries. Cops also arrested four people of PFI, including one from Kerala, in the conspiracy so far while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was investigating the matter.